Team stopped scoring!

[AlexOve1990]

Hi all - first time I've posted, I have been reading/following this forum for a while and think you all do a great job!

Been AFC Wimbledon manager for maybe 8 years, the last two seasons my team have really struggled to score. I have been using the same tactic for the whole game and normally it dominates and my team has only got better each season, two seasons ago i finished 3rd and thought I was going to push on - but then I have just stopped scoring as many, you can see my defensive record is as good as any in the league. I have changed training to focus on attacking movement/set pieces, changed strikers, tried to tweak tactic etc am I missing something?. I was wondering if this was a glitch similar to older versions of fm where the total amount of goals decreased the further you got into the game.

Any help appreciated!View attachment 471821View attachment 471820

 

[Jack Logan]

did you try also to moove bar to more match training?
I've used 4-2-3-1 and I've seen also that ball controll, tactics and Team Cohesion has good resluts (bad resluts I had with attack).

Did you change player in theese season? (maybe preferred moove and other attribute could change tactics scoring)

 

[TheBetterHalf]

My best explanation is the its a combination of teams sitting with more men behind the ball and man management.
Up until getting 3rd in the EPL, you have been considered and underdog in most matches. Here, your approach has really suited the way teams played against you. You played really compact with the 2 DMCs and with the wingers and striker acting like torpedoes, brutally exploiting any space the opponent leave open. When the opponents did play more cautious, well then your team was often good enough to beat them anyway( on the journey to the top)

Now, as soon as you got into the real top, teams with really good players started to recognise your ability and played more cautious agai at you. Here, your approach is not really the best since your " torpedoes " gets isolated from the rest of the team. They don't have this space to exploit but instead, they have to create it by moving between the lines.

The man management is one more thing. On the way to the top, you have probably been a great manager in keeping the morale high, not letting the players become complacent. The question is, how good are you in a crisis, when the players feels a bit bruised, their confidence it being on top? The way to handle these situation are far different from when all is fine and dandy.

Naturally, it could also be down to that players just get out of form, the team but being gelled, producing the vicious circle with the morale getting dropped and with the poorer man management above.

 

[Max]

Change tactics mate or just the set up of the formation. Try two up top and get rid of the AM and push the DM's to CM. Might help you control possession and the game a little more. Keep the wingers as AMRs and AMLs for games you are favourites in, maybe push them back to ML and MR for tougher games to keep possession a bit more.

 

[Mitre Delta 1000]

No glitches as far as I am aware.

As your reputation as a manager increases teams will start to play different against you.
I see from the pic that you only employ two tactics, maybe your team is too predictable?
I don't fully understand the inner workings of FM but my guess is this, the AI looks and see's you heavily favour one formation and sets itself up to counter it.

 

[MANUMAD]

1. TheBetterHalf is, as usual correct.
2. Your tactics seem to be too one track towards attacking. I would like to also see your team instructions but maybe try taking a more patient approach. I would make the winger support rather than attack.
3. I see another thing however: most of your players have excellent potential but are still in their youth/formative years. That is bound to cause probs such as those you are experiencing/inconsistency etc. Look to maybe buy a couple of older players asap to balance things.

 

[AlexOve1990]

Ok thanks for the feedback!
In answer to Jack Logan - Yep I've tried changing the amount of match training. and I think my squad rotation is quite good and i normally change out of form players or for less important games.
In answer to TheBetterHalf - That make sense, I will try changing my formation i just find it takes a while to get a formation right and that means losing a few games again plus I'll probably need to buy another striker to balance the squad out! I would say I started this as the FM-Base challenge and used this tactic and I never had this problem I managed to win easily and the squad wasn't as good as my current one. Morale has always been good and I talk to squad if we lose a few in a row and offer new contracts to players that deserve them / ask for them.
In repy to Max - I don't want to lose games making my own is there a downloadable tactic you could recommend?
In reply to Mitre Delta 1000 - I've always played the game where I make one tactic that works at the start and then build a team around that, I don't want to have to rotate between tactics all the time if I can help it.
In reply to MANUMAD - the ability of the squad is as good as the best teams in the league. I don't know why it shows so low.

 

[AlexOve1990]

View attachment 471771and theres my team instructions. Apologies if I seem reluctant in changing my tactic my squad is built around this tactic.

 

[MANUMAD]

Your problem is unique: first time I see something like this going on for two seasons.

Anyway:

1. Team instructions look reasonable - only thing I would suggest is maybe change the mentality to a less attacking one. That may seem unreasonable at first glance but bear in mind that attacking doesnt necessarily mean what we think it does. To give you an example it means when a player is in a tight angle and marked by two players he'll try to score when a better option would be to turn around and pass to a player behind him.

I actually find that Defensive mentality scores quite a few goals ... Not saying thats what you should adopt necessarily but as an example.

2. Your approach to tactics doesnt work in FM13 and to that extent its more realistic than previous versions. You cant settle on a tactic and then go on using it indefinitely. Do you think that any team in the real world finds a tactic and then uses it against every opponent?

3. Related to 2. above USE THE SCOUT REPORTS. Esp the tactics faced part. Look at what formation the opponent is not comfortable with and use that ore the nearest thing to it that your players are adept with.

4. Easiest way to get out of bad patches is to rely on pace - Ill give you an example: in my S'oton save I bought TOM INCE. His stats are not great apart from pace. I thought Id nurture him as usual, giving him games now and then to improve him. But my assman kept picking him for matches (I always start choosing who to play by asking the assman and then tweaking his suggestions) so I kept him in and watching matches Ive seen him repeatedly losing much better opponents and finding himself in good positions due to his pace - ending up being a feature of my starting XI with lots of assists and goals. So try to adapt your starting XI by using the most pacy players you have in each position. That is likely to work well with your aggressive team instructions but try also using the get stuck in and hassle opponents shouts also.

 

[AlexOve1990]

View attachment 471757

But this tactic has been brilliant for ~14 seasons.

 

[MANUMAD]

View attachment 385816

But this tactic has been brilliant for ~14 seasons.

We have acknowledged that. But for whatever reason it has stopped working ...

 

[Max]

The tactic may have been good for 14 seasons mate but if you want to turn things around you need either;

1. Change tactics
2. Get the morale up and try turn it around, hold a team meeting and think carefully about the right option and try inspire and motivate the team.

I am 90% sure you probably should change your tactic, whether its only a slight tweak or not.

 

[Mitre Delta 1000]

Ok thanks for the feedback!
In reply to Mitre Delta 1000 - I've always played the game where I make one tactic that works at the start and then build a team around that, I don't want to have to rotate between tactics all the time if I can help it.

Try this:
Load up you main tactic three times and rename two of them 'whatever' and make subtle changes to them like playing rigid instead of fluid, change from attacking to defensive/counter/control. You may also alter player roles from specific to generic role's but still keeping within your players ability's and your philosophy.
Being less attacking and more rigid can produce less quantity of chances but improve the quality of chances.

I don't want to lose games making my own is there a downloadable tactic you could recommend

Have you tried this? the tweaks thread has formations you employ rather than 4-4-2.
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...ure-attacking-tactic-top-teams-underdogs.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...17428-arrigo-sacchis-4-4-2-tweaks-thread.html

 

[AlexOve1990]

Ok thanks for all your help! - I think what TheBetterHalf was saying about finishing third meant teams were more cautious against me, well thanks to finishing 11th they are being sloppy against me defensively and I'm currently top haha. I'll dl the Arrigo Sacchi tactic and add as a second and use if this happens again, thanks Mitre.